Time
by Lioness's Heart
Summary: Oneshot. Time passes. Time is what makes us who we are. Without time, we are nothing. Beka/Rosto


**Disclaimer: Mine = Fail. Tammy's = Win. Make sense? Either way, it's not mine, for all I wish it was.  
A/N: Lioness has another oneshot! Yay. I love this oneshot, personally. It popped into my head on the way to a test and wouldn't leave me alone. It's rather poetic. AND! I didn't even kill anyone (Rosto) in it. That's pretty good, isn't it? So, anyway, don't forget to review! I love feedback, and feedback might inspire another oneshot, or an update for something at least.

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**_Time. Time is what wearies us. It takes lives in an instant and it cannot be turned back. Time is what kills the greatest of heroes, leeching away at their very bones. _

_Time is cruel. It takes everything and gives nothing back. Time ends us, for we are but temporal beings, there for an instant and gone the next. Time is what unravels us, taking from us every person and thing that matters to us._

_Time is generous. It gives us our instants, the time that passes. Time is kind to some. It gives them the deaths they wish for instead of the ones they were doomed to, when it seems to slow and they make a choice to live or die that day. Time relieves them of their burdens as their very life's blood flows out on the battlefield. They know that it is inevitable._

_Time is patient. It has nothing to wait for. We are all doomed to face it at every turn. Time waits for the moment when nothing important is left. It is always there. Time is constant; there is nowhere to run._

_But time passes. Time is what makes us who we are. Without time, we are nothing.

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_

Rosto the Piper is tired. He has been the Rogue for nearly twenty years, and it has wearied him. Time has passed – and time has not been kind to him.

He is not the man he was all those years ago. Time has scarred him, ravaged the dream he had once. He has been broken, and he has remade himself. But he is still there. He has not given up yet.

Rosto is alone, now. It has been a long time since he has really cared about anyone other than himself. His friends have moved on. Kora and Ersken are the well-off heads of the Westover family. Aniki has gone home to Scanra, and Phelan has followed her there. Beka's son visits the Dove every few days.

Her son is a handsome lad with brown eyes and her dark blond hair. She has never acknowledged who his father is – Rosto himself doesn't even know. He still remembers the few days they were together once, but it was short-lived and he has tried to put it behind him.

Still, he thinks about it daily. He still misses her, but he won't let that moment of weakness be used against him. He is still the Rogue, no matter what he says or does. He will be the Rogue until the day he dies.

Rosto is not afraid of time. He is not afraid of its passing. He has come to accept it now. He no longer longs for what he cannot have but contents himself with the life he lives. He gave up on love long ago. There is nothing that anyone can do to change that. Time has caused him to accept that they can never be together.

Time is why they cannot be together. They had their chance once, but not anymore. Their time and chance has passed. It was not Rosto's choice to allow time to spirit it away. He wanted to love her. He still does not understand why she chose something – or someone – else.

He still loves her, though time and pain have washed away the brilliance of the memories. He hates that the color has seeped out of them, that he cannot remember them as he once did.

But, time goes on, and Rosto goes with it. Rosto has accepted time. He is not afraid of it. He knows that it is inevitable. He's ready to face it, even if that means his life at the end of a knifepoint.

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_Time is cruel. It is generous. It is patient. But time is also kind. As the days pass, we still remember what has passed us by. We remember the feelings that wash over us, the pain that surges over our defenses, the passions that are written in our very souls. _

_Time is a many faceted aspect. Turn it one way, and we see what has passed, the other way, and we see what we look for in the future. Another way, and we see what we live now. But even with all of its aspects, time is irreversible. Time cannot be turned back. What passes is gone, it cannot be changed. _

_Nothing that is done can ever be undone. The choices that are made are final. They shape the course of history, and shape the lives of those who come after us. Even the smallest choice can change everything. _

_In the end, it is time that we run out of. We only have a limited time in our world. When it is over, it is over. It is final. There is no going back. Not even the strongest force can turn back time.

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_

Time has passed Beka Cooper by. She has lived a full life, and she is reasonably happy. She is content. She was a Dog for twenty years before she retired. She raised a son on her own, and she is proud of him. He is a good man.

Beka herself has changed. She has come to terms with her mother's death, and has moved on. She has made peace with her siblings. She has done her job.

In the end, Beka is tired. She is lonely. She misses her friends who have passed on before her. She misses Rosto. They have not spoken in years, though they were once very close. This saddens her. She loved him, once upon a time.

It has been a long time since Beka allowed herself to acknowledge that fact. She walked out on him only days after they were finally together. She knows how much she hurt him. She knows that she broke him that day.

Years later, she sent their son off to the Dove every few days, hoping that Rosto would realize that the lad was his son, too. Instead, she was disappointed – he never came to see her about the lad, or at all if he didn't have to. He was a busy man, and he had little time for a woman who had spurned him when he had given her all he had. Or, at least, that is how it is in her mind.

But now, as he is crouched in a fighting stance, she knows it is over. Her eyes flash over his grey-threaded blond hair, the lines carved into his handsome face by the years, the determination in his dark eyes, and she can't help but regret. He would have done anything for her, and she knows it. She passed that up once, and there is little chance that she will have another opportunity. She winces when she sees rivulets of blood spill from wounds on Rosto's forearm and thigh.

Then he catches sight of her in the crowd and freezes. His brown eyes are surprised for an instant before a knife catches him in the shoulder. Rosto glances at her again, but he cannot linger on her long. He knows that it will mean his death if he does. It will likely mean his death even if he does not.

The seconds pass slowly for Beka Cooper. She is watching someone's life end. Whether it is Rosto's or his challenger's, she does not know. In the end, it doesn't matter. In the end, time passes. In the end, all she can do is watch.

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**A/N: Like it? Love it? Don't? Let me know! Leave a review, please!**


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